Growing Strong
by Shinami07
Summary: He cried and sobbed and screamed till his throat hurt and all his energy was lost. It wasn't fair. But he guessed that nothing was ever fair in war.


Naruto was running.

 _Not fast enough_ , he thought and pushed his legs even further even though they already cramped and pain raced up his sides. _Faster, faster, faster, faster..._

The town behind him was in flames. The military troops had marched in this morning and hadn't wasted a second before turning everything upside down.

They started with capturing the major and officially executing him on the market place.

Next were the kids. Soldiers crowded them into their trucks to transport them to special training camps where they made ruthless killers out of them.

People were dragged out of their homes and killed on the street if they resisted.

Everything valuable was confiscated; the citizens were stripped of money, jewels, artifacts, their kids and their lives.

Naruto had seen this gruesome spectacle from the nearby forest, where he had been hiding from his godfather. They had been arguing this morning and the blonde had been so angry that he had stormed out of the house.

That childish act may have saved his life.

Had Naruto been at home he would now be sitting between other shivering, scared guys his age, waiting to be shipped of to the ' _Training field_ '.

Every adult between 18 and 30 was captured and forced to join the army. To 'prepare' them, they were brought to the Training field. Officially it was sort of a boot camp to train the young adults and teach them how to survive in a fight.

Naruto and everybody else knew that it was hell on earth.

 _Would've gotten me killed before arriving there anyway_ , he thought with morbid amusement. His loud mouth and hot temper weren't something that cruel, ill-humored guys with big guns could stand that long.

He nearly fell when his foot got caught in a root.

Running through the woods was something he did since he was three, but his legs were growing tired. His breath was short and fast and not nearly brought in enough oxygen. His lungs were blazing.

But he didn't even think about pausing and catching his breath. He was sure they hadn't seen him, but they would probably comb trough the forest to search for hiding fugitives and Naruto surely wouldn't wait there to be found.

In all of his 20 years had he ever left his hometown. He had planned to leave and travel the world in a few years, when he had saved up enough money. Now all his money was lost to the hands of the army to buy new weapons and create new bombs. His journey would have to wait. Naruto was lucky when he got into the next town without getting shot.

It was difficult to grasp how everything had turned this horrible in such short time.

The land had been peaceful for more than hundred years, since the last Great War. When the opposing sides had signed the treaty, everything was fine. The strongest and most reliable soldier, who had played an important role in the peace negotiations, had been chosen to be monarch. He had been crowned two days later. Since then he and his family resided in _Iron Castle_ in the capital and his legacy was held upright till this day. Until everything escalated, his grandson had reigned over the land.

Two years ago, the peace had been disrupted. A former councilman named Danzo had overthrown the current king and killed him along with his wife and their children. With the help of an army that he had build secretly behind everyone's back for who knows how long, he had brought the rest of the council and the capital under his control. The citizens were either imprisoned or threatened, the military regime was established.

Rebels were killed on sight.

Since then, soldiers invaded random towns. Everyday people had to fear for their lives and most went to sleep at night with a prayer on their lips.

Naruto had heard all of this, but.. it hadn't seemed real. It was something that happened far away and it hadn't really concerned their little town. Until now.

"Dumb, fat, retarded sons of a _fucking_ bitch", he hissed under his short breath. Tears tried to get in his vision, but he blinked them away. His godparents were still in there.. what would happen to them? They were to old to be soldiers and surely not important enough to be held as political prisoners. Maybe they just took their money, but left them alive?

Naruto tried not to think about the alternatives.

He concentrated on running and trying to listen if anybody was behind him, but his heavy breath and the cracking twigs beneath his feet were all sounds that reached his ear.

Naruto didn't know how long he ran. He didn't even know where he was, he had never been this deep into the forest. As far as he knew there was another town behind it somewhere and the blonde hoped to find some help there. Everything he possessed as of now were the clothes he wore and his life and he knew he should be grateful for it.

But everything running through his head was _They killed them they killed them I'm homeless._

When night came everything went pitch-black. Naruto stopped running for the first time in hours and decided to rest for a moment because his legs felt as if they'd give up on him in a moment. He couldn't be sure that no one was following him but for now he should be safe. As safe as one can be in a situation like this. He sat down under an old oak tree and put his arms around his knees.

He was so _tired_.

He tried to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes images of soldiers and his town in chaos flashed through his mind. The screams of the children, the flames enclosing the houses, the soldiers aiming their weapons. Aiming to kill.

A lump begun building in his throat. He tried to suppress it but couldn't stop the sob from escaping. Tears began streaming down his cheeks and before he knew all the agony, all the sorrow he felt since he saw what was happening to his people broke free.

He cried and sobbed and screamed till his throat hurt and all his energy was lost.

Why would something like this happen to him and his people? It wasn't fair. But he guessed that nothing was ever fair in war.

Exhausted, he leaned against the tree behind him and stared into the canopy of leaves above him. He thought about his next step, but his brain just wouldn't think straight. For nearly an hour he just sat there and imagined that they would find him, kill him. Right now, it didn't sound that bad.

An unamused laugh escaped him. Naruto Uzumaki, giving up. Something completely unheard of till now. But what was he supposed to do now? All he had was lost, his godparents were dead, his friends captured. He was.. alone.

Eventually his he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. They closed on their own accord. He felt sleep slowly coming over him.

Then he heard a noise. He stood so fast his muscles cramped. There were voices. Someone was here! Naruto tried to understand what they were saying, but they were still to far away. Should he run? Maybe they were soldiers searching for fugitives. Who else would be in the woods at night?

"-was pissed as hell, he didn't even thank me for the weapons I managed to steal!"

"Did you expect him to? Your ugly ass was nearly killed because you dumbfuck can't follow orders."

Naruto decided to run. Someone who spoke about weapons and following orders could only be soldiers. He took a step back and promptly fell over a root. His body slammed to the ground and a loud "Umph" left his mouth. The voices fell silent. Naruto hold his breath.

"Did you hear that?"

He heard quick footsteps coming in his direction and leaped to his feet with a curse. Disregarding the noise he was making, he started to run as fast as he could.

The soldiers spoke a few more words, but Naruto couldn't understand what they were saying. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that the footsteps were following him. He pushed his legs to the limit, but it sounded as if they were closing in on him. Again he cursed and tried to change course to outrun them, but when he looked over his shoulder he saw two dark figures still running behind him in the distance.

 _Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck i'm gonna die_ run through his mind like a mantra while the normally green and brown colors of the forest flashed by in dark blurs. The guys were closing in even though they seemed to carry heavy gear. Naruto was just too worn out. In a panicked search for an escape he looked around but it was so dark he couldn't even see his own hands.

Then he broke through the wall of trees and suddenly found himself on the outskirts of the forest. For a moment he was so shocked that he came to a halt. Before him were the ruins of a seemingly large town.

It looked as if a fire had used the town as playground. Everything was charred and burnt black. The buildings that weren't burnt down were damaged and deteriorated, even the cobblestone was destroyed on some spots. Everything seemed dark and abandoned, like... a ghost town.

"You there! Wait!"

Naruto realized his mistake of standing still the same second that strong arms gripped him left and right. Instantly, he tried to break free with all his strength but these guys had a strong grip on him and weren't letting go.

"Let me go! Fucking sons of a-"

A hard blow to his head knocked the breath out of him. He fought unconsciousness with tooth and nail, but to no avail. The last thing he heard before everything went black were the hushed voices of his opponents.

"Did you have to hit him so hard?"

"Did you want to get a black eye? At least...won't... put up...fight..."

The first thing he noticed was the silence. There were no little noises of rustling leaves, cracking twigs or little animals calling. No one talking, no one moving around. Naruto found it kind of disconcerting.

Then he realized he was laying on a bed. He couldn't fathom where there would be a bed in the forest and then he thought _what if._

What if it all had been one hell of a nightmare? The soldiers never attacked his village, his godparents were fine, he was still in his own bed in his own room, _everything was still okay._

When he tried to slowly open his eyes, he noticed that his head hurt like a bitch... Wait.

His eyes snapped open and he shot up so fast that for a moment all he saw was black. He winced at the nauseous feeling and the painful throbbing at the back of his head. When his eyesight came back a few seconds later he looked around him. This wasn't his own room. And this wasn't his bed.

The bed he lay on belonged to a room that reminded him of a hospital. The walls were white and the sparse furnishing looked sterile and hideous in color.

He felt like crying. So it had been reality.

Telling himself to man up he swallowed his grief and concentrated on finding out where the hell he was. Presumably these guys had knocked him out and brought him here but Naruto noticed that he wasn't bound or handcuffed. Didn't they see him as a threat? Or did they assume he would cower and join the army voluntarily?

 _Assholes_ he thought.

Naruto glanced cautiously to the door. It was closed but didn't seem to be locked.

As quiet as possible he stood up and noticed with a curse that he didn't have his shoes. He couldn't see them in this room anywhere and decided to escape on his socks then. Something like that couldn't stop one Naruto Uzumaki.

When he reached the door, he inspected it suspiciously. But there seemed to be no lock or hidden trap, so he carefully pushed down the handle. And though he checked beforehand he was surprised that the door opened just like that, without anything funny happening. That was.. too easy.

On the other side of the door was a plain dark corridor. Naruto stepped out and was ready to just run till he found an exit, but a voice to his right let him freeze.

"Look at that, Shikamaru. Goldilocks here wants to escape on his socks."

Naruto's head snapped around. Beside the door on the wall leaned a guy his height with brown hair and strange red markings on his cheeks. His black uniform was a stark contrast to the white wall behind him. A black rifle dangled bis his side. What aggravated the blonde the most though was the shit-eating grin he wore.

"See, I told you he was that kind of guy", he went on and looked to something on his right, without caring that a possible enemy stood there and could attack any moment now. A snort came from beside the brunet and Naruto only then noticed the other guy sitting on the ground. The guy wore his dark hair in a ponytail, wore the same black uniform and with a nervous jump of his heart the blonde saw another rifle on him.

"Who are you?", he asked, careful to keep his voice even and confident. These guys would never see him cowering before them, not in this life.

"The better question is, who are _you_?", the brunet shot back, suddenly serious.

Naruto gulped. The guy had seemed nicer with the stupid grin on his face. He shot a quick glance to the rifle on his side, cautious to not aggravate the brunet too much.

"Where am I?", he tried again, not willing to give them his name if they didn't give him something in return. "A hospital?"

The brunet narrowed his eyes. He seemed annoyed. It was the other guy though who finally answered in a tone that sounded so bored that Naruto wondered how he kept himself awake.

"You're in Konoha's Central Hospital."

"Konoha?", Naruto repeated inquiring.

"The town you encountered just before Kiba here bashed your head in."

"Ah yeah, that.", the blonde deadpanned. He shot 'Kiba' an angry glare.

His brain was going full speed. These guys didn't seem like the soldiers who attacked his town. Now that he got a closer look, they even wore different uniforms. So who were they? Were they dangerous? Naruto deemed it safe to assume that they weren't out to kill him but it still seemed suspicious that they had tried -and succeeded- to capture him.

He decided to compromise a little.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki.", he told them. "Who're you?"

"Kiba Inuzuka.", the brunet answered and saluted casually. "That bum here is Shikamaru Nara. Why is some civilian like you running through the forest at night?"

Naruto bristled at the word 'civilian' but knew that it was the truth. "Are you part of Danzo's army?"

Granted, it was maybe a bit too blunt but Naruto was never one to beat around the bush. Then their faces went from bored to deadly serious and the blonde instantly noticed that he'd made a mistake in bringing up that name.

"Are you?", the guy named Shikamaru shot back.

It was a 50/50 chance. Either they were part of Danzo's army and tried to find out if he was a rebel or they were rebels and tried to find out if he was an enemy. Naruto had never been good in mind games and he had the slightest feeling that a wrong answer would be his death sentence.

"No.", he answered after a tense minute, prepared to make a run for it should they try anything funny. But nothing happened. The guys shared a short glance and seemed to come to an understanding. Their tense shoulders relaxed and Shikamaru looked instantly bored again.

"Neither are we.", Kiba grinned. "We're what they call the 'rebels'."

He sounded so proud that Naruto wasn't sure if he understood what that word meant. That Shikamaru guy seemed to think the same thing cause he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"So pray tell, what were you doing out there? Didn't look like camping."

"I..", Naruto began but faltered. It was still too fresh, to painful. He swallowed hard, then continued. "I'm from the next town behind the forest. It was.. attacked by Danzo's men. I fled."

Kiba's face darkened. "Damn Danzo.", he cursed and mumbled some pretty unfriendly words. Naruto thought he might like him.

There was a short silence in which everyone just tried to digest the situation.

"Sorry for chasing you through the woods. We thought you were a spy.", Kiba eventually grinned and rubbed the back of his head, slightly embarrassed. "And, well, sorry for hitting you.", he added with a nervous chuckle.

Naruto accepted it with a short nod. Suddenly he was dead tired. He wished for some quiet corner, maybe some food, but above all a bed. Hell, he'd even take the floor. The little rest he'd gotten because of his damaged head hadn't nearly been enough.

But there was something he should think about before going to sleep. His town was destroyed, everyone he knew dead or captured. He had no idea where to go.

"What.. am I supposed to do now?", he asked before he could stop himself. He didn't want to seem weak, but these guys seemed his best chance to get an answer. He wanted to do something against the current situation, but didn't know how one man could possibly harm the most powerful man on the world.

"Get back at him, of course! Danzo, I mean. He destroyed your home, man, you just wanna be still and do nothing?"

Kiba's words hit close to home. Naruto wanted this guy to suffer. He wanted to stop Danzo and punish him for everything he'd done. Someone like that should not be allowed to control half the world. Someone like that should not be allowed to live.

But was joining the rebels really a solution to this? For all he knew, they were as bad as Danzo. Or maybe they weren't even 'rebels' but just another group striving for world domination. But truth was, he didn't have that much options. Either be alone or fight with them, the answer seemed obvious.

Naruto had never been cruel and hated death to a passion. But he'd always been furious when someone hurt his important people, had always made sure that they'd be safe in the future. And he would make damn sure that Danzo wouldn't be able to harm anyone anymore. His hands were balled to fists when he raised his head and looked at the 'rebels' in front of him with determined eyes.

"How do I join you?"

Kiba smirked. "Thought you'd never ask." He pushed himself of the wall and adjusted his rifle against his side. When Shikamaru stood, the brunet turned to go with a prompting glance over his shoulder. "Come on, Goldilocks. Meet the boss."

On the way out of the hospital Naruto learned that Kiba and Shikamaru had been on patrol when they found him and that there were far more 'rebels' than the two of them.

"The base is underground. We brought you to the old hospital first 'cause we couldn't be sure who you were. It's the only slightly intact building 'round here. Can't let the enemy find out about our hide-out now, can we.", Kiba grinned.

Shikamaru explained that in the old times, the towns' major had built some sort of catacombs below Konoha to shelter the citizens. Now they were using it to hide from Danzo and his army. Naruto knew that a lot of the larger towns had those from times of the last Great War thanks to his history teacher. But he had never seen one, nor been in one. For a town this size it had to be an enormous system down there.

Outside, the streets were full of rubber and debris of the destroyed buildings around them. It was still nighttime and there was no streetlamp, so Naruto had trouble seeing where he was going. One or two times he stumbled over a rock or a little crater in the pavement. Now that he had time to look around he really noticed the gruesome state of Konoha. It was nothing more than ruins.

"What happened here?", he whispered and to his surprise it was Shikamaru who answered.

"Danzo attacked it two years ago, right at the beginning of his takeover. At that time, he was full of rage and destroyed Konoha completely. He didn't take prisoners."

The blonde gasped. A town this size must have had.. millions of citizens. Again, his anger at this man sparked. How could someone kill so many people and still be okay with himself? Naruto grit his teeth so hard it hurt, trying not to lose it. Danzo wasn't going to get away with it. He would pay for it, this Naruto vowed.

"Why Konoha? It's like.. at least one and a half day distance from the capital."

His new friends were silent for a few seconds and Naruto instantly knew the next words wouldn't be completely truthful.

"Nobody knows. Maybe he just wanted all large towns destroyed so the resistance would be lesser.", Shikamaru shrugged.

Naruto shot him a look, but his face was bored as always. Kiba's poker-face however was miserable. He couldn't bring himself to look into Narutos eyes and was biting nervously on his lip.

The rest of the way was spent in silence, broken every now and then by a comment Kiba made. Naruto thought about the 'boss' he was going to meet. Was it someone like Danzo, mad and ruling through fear? He hoped not. Only now he noticed that he didn't know anything about the 'rebels' and their way of doing things. If they were ruthless killers like Danzo's men, then Naruto was out of here. He didn't want anything to do with people without a conscience.

Kiba and Shikamaru didn't seem like bad guys, but Naruto had always been easily trusting. He would have to stop with this habit as of now.

Lost in his thoughts about bad guys, he didn't notice Kiba stopping and nearly run into him. When he raised his head, he saw them standing before an unimpressive, though highly damaged old building.

"That's Konoha's library. Well, it _was_ Konoha' library.", Kiba spoke and opened the door for them to enter. Inside it was dark and dusty. They crossed the hall. The whole room was stuffed with high shelves, filled with millions of books. A lot of their former content though lay scattered around the floor, as if pushed out of their shelves while an earthquake.

 _Or some bomb explosions_ , Naruto thought.

"The major thought a building full of boring books would be most unlikely to be searched." Kiba moved an old moldy curtain at the end of the hall aside. Naruto wrinkled his nose at the stench the thing radiated. Then he saw the little square room behind it. There was a nondescript steel-door at the end of it. "So he build the entrance to the underground base here."

Naruto kind of felt like Alice finding the way to Wonderland. For someone like him it wasn't an everyday occurrence to see a hidden door behind a curtain and to find the hide-out of rebels behind it. Kiba seemed to know what he thought because he sent him an amused grin before punching in some numbers on the little display beside the handle which Naruto hadn't even noticed till now. A beep sounded and Kiba opened the door. The blonde held an excited breath.

There were.. a lot of stairs. Way too many stairs. It was a giant spiral staircase weaving itself down into the earth. Naruto thought he saw some lights at the end of it. When the door fell shut behind them he kind of expected thousands of torches to light up on the walls, but it were LED's at the side of the steps that illuminated everything. With the new light source he finally discovered that the stairs weren't out of stone, like he first thought, but out of steel.

He was maybe a little bit disappointed.

"Wow, it's... really modern."

"Don't be too deeply disappointed that it's not wonderland.", Kiba snorted and Naruto shot him a nasty glare.

It took them full 10 minutes to walk down the staircase and Naruto dreaded walking all these steps up again whenever he would leave the base. At the end of the stairs was another heavy steel-door. Shikamaru opened it and Naruto saw a gigantic hall flooded with light. After a moment he realized it came from thousands of lights embedded into the walls and the ceiling. Though the ceiling was made of tiles, Naruto knew there were at least 100 feet of pure stone above it. The thought was terrifying.

There were corridors branching of right and left, making it seem like giant labyrinth underground. Naruto knew he would be totally lost if left alone.

There were only a few people running around, but they didn't seem to take notice of them. Naruto wondered how many people lived here. It was nighttime though, so the few number of people wasn't surprising.

"You can start sight-seeing later, come on.", Kiba said and went ahead. They entered the second corridor on the left. It was a long brightly-lit hallway. Naruto tried to memorize the way but after they took two left-turns, three right-turns and then another left one, he had already forgotten the beginning. Their path seemed endless to him when they finally stopped in front of a door. Naruto assumed it was the office of the infamous 'boss'. Now he got nervous.

Kiba opened the door and pulled the blonde in with him. The room was smaller than he had imagined and very sparsely furnished. Only a desk stood in the middle of it. On top of it lay a lot of documents and a lamp stood at the side. On the edge of it leaned some tall guy with a strange eye patch over his left eye. A black mask hid most of his face. He looked up from the paper he was reading when they entered.

"Hatake. We picked up this guy in the woods eastward of Konoha. His name's Naruto Uzumaki. Said his town was attacked and he fled."

Naruto gulped. He was nervous. It felt a bit like going to the principal.

This Hatake guy nodded. Kiba let go of the blonde and stepped out of the room without another word. Naruto threw the closed door an anxious look, then turned around to face the other occupant of the room.

"So.. Danzo flattened another part of the landscape.", he said after a moment and seemed surprisingly uncaring. Naruto instantly felt anger well up in him. Who the hell was that guy to talk like that about his hometown! "What was your name again?"

"Naruto Uzuma-"

"Ah, yes, yes.. so, why are you here?"

The blonde couldn't believe that this crooked guy was the head of an organization this size. How the hell did he end up in this position? Won a game of rock, paper, scissors? From what he had seen from the base till now he'd expect someone more.. disciplined. Serious. Naruto was suspicious. Had they shown him to the right guy?

"I want to join you.", he eventually answered, trying to sound calm. That guy was unnerving him.

The man hummed and let a calculating gaze wander over him, as if memorizing every little detail about him. After a few tense minutes in which Naruto just stood there and waited for an answer and the guy just smiled, he cracked.

"And? Am I in or what? You're the boss, aren't you?", he blurted out, highly annoyed.

"Oh, I'm not the boss", he smiled -at least his eyes looked like he did- and leaned back in his chair with his hands in his pockets. Naruto shot him a confused look.

"You're.. not?"

"Oh no. I like to call myself his secretary.", he grinned under his mask and Naruto had the feeling he was being made fun of. He tried to stay calm. _Don't lose it.. just ignore him.._

He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. Then he tried again to hold a decent conversation.

"So, where is he then?"

"Who?"

Naruto jumped. Startled, he turned around to see who had spoken. Even though the voice had sounded near, he flinched when he saw the dark haired man standing directly behind him. The first thing he noticed was how unreasonable handsome he was. The second thing was the highly irritated look sent his way. It instantly set him on edge.

"Who're you?", he asked defensively, not prepared to face another guy meddling in his business. He'd only wanted to speak to the damn boss, why was that so difficult?! The dark haired seemed only more annoyed, but didn't answer. He just turned to the weirdo behind the desk, completely disregarding Naruto.

"Kakashi, have you sent that team to Kiri yet? The captain over there sent another messenger complaining about his dwindling force level.", he said, rolling his eyes at the 'another'-part. The weirdo -'Kakashi'- gave a curt nod and reported in short words.

Naruto had a terrible thought. When this Kakashi over there wasn't the boss...

"...oh and boss, Kiba and Shikamaru picked up this stray in the forest. His town was destroyed yesterday and now he wants to join us.", the gray haired finished, then turning to the blonde again. "Naruto, meet Sasuke Uchiha, the boss."

His wide blue eyes stared at the black haired guy. That guy looked his age. He was grumpy. And way to pretty to be boss. "Seriously?" he asked Kakashi without taking his gaze of the younger man. He got a wary glance out of dark eyes in return.

Sasuke Uchiha mumbled something like "Don't call me that" and walked past Naruto to sit behind the desk. Kakashi automatically stood and Naruto almost expected a salute or something silly like that. But the man just walked out of the room with a wave and a singsonged "Have fun."

They looked at each other. Naruto had never in all of his twenty years seen such dark eyes. It unnerved him how piercing they seemed, as if they could see right through him. He couldn't gauge what kind of personality the boss had. The Uchiha's face didn't reveal much. It looked stern and kind of.. expectant.

"What's your name?", Sasuke asked after a felt eternity. Naruto noticed him watching is reaction very closely and knew he was being analyzed. This was his test.

"Naruto Uzumaki.", he answered with an even voice, knowing that this was his only chance to join the rebels and possibly get his revenge.

"How did you escape the soldiers?"

"I was in the forest when they came. They didn't see me, so I run."

"Did someone else get away?"

He faltered in their little question-answer-game. Till now he hadn't thought that much about it because thinking about it made him angry and desperate. He had tried to fool himself till now that it was possible, that maybe his friends and his family were able to escape the madness. But deep down, he knew better. He gulped. Took a breath. Then answered.

"Unlikely."

There was a short pause while his interrogator watched him. Naruto gave up trying to read this guy, he just couldn't guess what he was thinking. Maybe that was a required quality for someone in this position, he mused. It was certainly profitable. He fidgeted under the hard gaze and was inclined to ask this Sasuke guy what the hell his problem was, but kept his mouth forcefully closed. He couldn't ruin this. Then the dark eyes softened barely noticeable.

"How old are you?"

For a moment, he was too startled by the both the great effect it had on his expression and the question that he needed a moment to understand what was asked of him.

"20", he finally answered, confused why that would be of relevance to Sasuke. "What about you?", he asked before he could stop himself, incredibly curious about this guy. He seemed different than everyone he'd ever met. He wanted to know why he was the head of this group of rebels at such a young age.

Sasuke seemed surprised about the counter question, but answered nonetheless.

"23"

 _Only three years.._

"Why do you want to join?", Sasuke then asked and Naruto's face hardened.

"To kill the asshole who destroyed my town.", he answered truthfully.

For a second Naruto thought he saw the corner of Sasuke's mouth twitch, but it was gone in a blink so he might have imagined it. But he didn't miss the amused glint in his eyes.

It was a bad idea to start a fight with someone who would decide over his future, but Naruto couldn't hold to him. "You think I can't do it?"

Sasuke tilted his head slightly and now Naruto was pretty sure he was laughing at him. A tiny smirk graced his lips. "Do _you_ think you can do it?"

The arrogant tone aggravated him so much that his hands balled into fists on their own. He ground his teeth in anger, but didn't get a chance to answer because Sasuke went on.

"Kiba is waiting outside, tell him to lead you to your new rooms. Ask him to show you around. Come here again tomorrow at seven o clock."

Naruto bit his tongue so that no angry word escaped. Sasuke had just accepted him into their ranks, allowing him to stay here. Even he knew not to jeopardize that. But he already didn't like that bastard.

"What for?", he asked, his eyes showing his annoyance.

"You'll see."

He'd always had a problem with authority. Bending to the will of another wasn't something Naruto Uzumaki did voluntarily. But at the moment, he didn't have a chance. So he gave a short nod and turned around to leave the office.

"Don't be late."

"Asshole.", he said in a low voice when he exited through the door. Before it fell shut, he heard a quiet snort.


End file.
